15^TH SUNDAY, YEAR B: REFLECTION BY FR JULIAN EKEH

THEME: YOU HAVE A MISSION: HOW TO GO ABOUT IT

(Mark 6:7-13)

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. On this day of the Lord, Jesus called and sent His apostles two by two. Prior to their departure, Jesus sat them down and gave them some instructions that would guide them. These instructions are also important to us who are sent into our own world as apostles of God.

Let us, therefore, pay attention to Jesus Christ, who calls us to be with Him in order to be sent out to draw all men to where He is.

 

HAVE AUTHORITY OVER THE UNCLEAN

To have authority over the unclean demands that we be clean, pure, and holy. We should not be like what we condemn. Our mission on earth demands that we manifest our superiority over and above the various spirits, mentalities, programs, projects, and forces that are Antichrist. We have to do an introspective work. The mission should begin with us. We have to allow the word and will of God to take root in us. We need to be purified by the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be set free from mundane ties and diabolic strangleholds. We need the Spirit of discernment to know these spirits and be able to authoritatively dismantle them from their foundation. May the Good Spirit of God lead us.

 

NOTHING BUT THE STAFF

In our mission on earth, we should go with nothing but Christ. Any other thing outside Christ comes from the evil one.

The staff in hand gives us spiritual support and confidence. With it, we are able to wage war against the enemies of our faith. With the staff we stand firm against heresies, we confront falsehood, we journey without falling, we guard, guide, and direct in accordance with the will of God.

We go with the staff to strike down and crush the intimidating forces in the world and the wild beasts coming to draw us and the people of God from God. With the staff, we bring back erring brethren to the faith, encouraging them to remain in the one fold. The staff is also used for correction and discipline. Hold your staff as a Christian firm; your staff as a Christian father, mother, political leader, civil servant, etc. Stamp your authority as a child of God. Let everyone around you know where you are coming from and where you are going to (heaven).

 

WEAR YOUR SANDALS

The sandals protect you from direct contact with the ground, with weapons and safety from reptiles. Do not allow forces from below to pull you down. Trample upon the satanic influences. Don't listen to the deceit of the world, the devil, and the flesh that claims to give you protection. You bear the mark of the Holy Trinity on you. No other mark or incantation should be traced on you. You don't need any other extra thing to be added. In Christ, you've got all you need to achieve your goal. Only God will fortify you in the mission He has sent you on earth. He who called you is worthy. Run to Him for your safety.

 

TOUCH LIVES

The mission is given to us all today to touch lives positively. To bring people to repentance. To bring healing to the sick, hope to the hopeless and deliverance to those possessed by demons.

Let us go about these missions diligently. We may face challenges along the way, but the grace of God works in us as we journey with Him. Some will receive us, and others will reject us. But let's always go to people as 'Godsents' that He may bless us for being His missionaries.

 

LET US PRAY

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of today. Thank You for reminding us of our mission on earth. May we follow Your instructions and go about them under the inspiration and direction of Your Spirit through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 Happy Sunday (15th Week, Ordinary Time, Yr B)

Rev Fr Julian O Ekeh

 Friday of 14^th Week, Year II: reflection

Theme: Return to the Lord; abundant blessings await you

Reading: Hosea 14:1-9

Today’s first reading comes from the last chapter of the book of the prophet Hosea. Hosea masterfully wrapped up his book by reminding his people that it was their sins that made them to stumble and fall and by inviting them to return to the Lord to confess their sins, admitting that idols will never again be their God, that Assyria cannot save them, and that horses cannot protect them.

The Lord promised that if the Israelites answered Hosea's call, He would love them with all of His heart and shower blessings upon them like rain, making them blossom like flowers, beautiful like olive trees, and fragrant like Lebanon's cedars.

Dear friends, Hosea’s message to Israel is still relevant to all of us who need the blessings of God in our lives to survive the reality of our time. Sins can only make us stumble and fall. Reliance on human beings and material possessions do not give us the fulfilment that makes us whole; romance with idols do not give human beings the peace of mind to enjoy the fruits of such relationship. The only source of the peace and fulfilment that our hearts truly yearn for is God. Let us, therefore, trace our paths back to God, acknowledging our wrongs and promising Him that we will not return to our past life of sin. If we do this, the fullness of the blessings He promised to the people of Israel during Hosea’s time will be ours and our hearts will truly be satisfied.

May the blessings of God be yours as we open your heart to Him today. Amen

Fr Isaac Chima

 Thursday of 14^th Week, Year II (Memorial of St Benedict): reflection

Theme: Never take God’s benevolence for granted

Reading: Hosea 11:1-4,8c-9

Dear friends in Christ, in today’s first reading, God continued to invite the people of Israel, through the prophet Hosea, to reciprocate His goodness to them by ending their romance with foreign gods. He spoke to them as a loving father would speak to an errant son, reminding them of the great deeds He accomplished in their lives, starting from the time they were about to be exterminated in Egypt.

Despite Israel’s growing ungratefulness, God chose not to deal with them according to their actions or in accordance with His justice. Rather, He promised to allow His compassion to continue growing warm and tender for them, and to bless them more. With this benevolent approach, God intended to win His people over with more love and to give them another chance to walk away from their sinful ways and start doing good.

What does this passage tell us, dear friends? Many people wonder why God continues to bless and favour them despite their wicked lifestyles. Today’s reading simply tells us that the blessings, favours, graces and breakthroughs we continue to experience in our lives even while we are living in sins is God’s approach to win us over to himself by showing us more love rather than chastising us for our wrongs. The reason for His benign treatment of us, even when we offend him with our lives and deeds, as we saw in today's reading, is to offer us another chance to cease evil and to remind us that He loves us unconditionally.

When the people of Israel failed to seize the numerous ‘another chance’ given to them by God, what befell them shook the history of their lives. Many of us may be on the last stage of another chance from God. Let’s make a move before it becomes late.

St Benedict, Pray for us

Fr Isaac Chima

 Wednesday of 14^th Week, Year II: reflection

Theme: How do you repay God for His blessings to you?

Reading: Hosea 10:1-3,7-8,12

Psalm 116:12 asked a perennial question. It said: “How can I repay the Lord for His goodness to me?” Dear friends in Christ, with what do you repay God for His goodness to you and what do you do with the special gifts and graces God bestowed upon you? Every extra blessing or endowment given to us by God comes with expectations; the same is true in human relationships.

In today's first reading, God sounded an alarm through the prophet Hosea about the attitude of those He has lavished with excessive blessings. He said that the more He blessed them, the more they rejected Him and gave sacrifices to idols. What a way to express ungratefulness to a loving and generous God.

Negative use of God’s extra blessings did not stop during the time of the prophet Hosea. You may have noticed that most ladies God endowed with beauty in excess and the kind of stature that catches the eyes of everyone often end up in the prostitution industry. Most guys who are blessed with superhuman strength end up being bullies in the society and thugs to those in positions of authority. Many people who have been blessed with wealth use it to oppress the poor and to cause problems in their communities. Many of those He bestowed with superintelligence ended up doubting His existence and proposing many theories to disprove His existence. There is a whole lot of negative use of God’s extra blessings in our own days.

If you have been using God’s extra blessings to satisfy yourself rather than God, the prophet Hosea invites you to start showing God some gratitude today by utilizing His extra gifts to you for something that will bring praise to His name; tomorrow might be too late.

May your Wednesday be showered with graces and favours. Amen

Fr Isaac Chima

 Tuesday of 14^th Week, Year II: reflection

Theme: Don’t quit being good or doing good because of negative criticisms

Reading: Mt 9:32-38

Do you face negative criticisms and assaults for the good thing you do in your family, church, and community? Are there people who criticize you for every positive step you take to improve the lives of others? Do people misinterpret you even when nothing warrants it? Are there people who always spin the narrative of your good efforts so that the people will concentrate on little mistakes rather than on the enormous good you are doing? Are you planning to quit doing good so that these negative attacks and reactions will stop coming?

Dear friends, there is someone who is never attracted to the good and would use every means to ensure that the world sees no good, but bad. This Mr. ‘Do No good’ has his disciples all over the word, using every formula to stop the good wherever it is diminishing the influence of the bad. In today’s gospel, Jesus had an encounter with these agents of this Mr Do No Good. While Jesus was going about doing good, liberating those held bound by evil and sicknesses, some Pharisees accused him of doing those good works through the power of the devil, with an intent to stop him from doing further good.

How Jesus reacted to attacks from the Pharisees in today’s gospel should motivate and guide all those who are thinking about giving up on doing good on account of negative criticisms, attacks and lies against them from the agents of Mr. Do no good. This gospel passage narrated that criticisms against Jesus spurred him up to double his efforts in doing good rather than quitting. It said “he went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. And when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them.”

Dear friends, when you quit doing good because of negative criticisms, the agents of Mr Do no good – the devil – have succeeded in their plans against you. Hence, let us resist the devil and his agents by continuing to do good for humanity despite negative criticisms.   

Fr Isaac Chima

 Monday of 14^th Week in Ordinary Time, Year B: reflection

Theme: Our God is more powerful that all obstacles to your joy; approach Him with faith.

Reading: Mt 9:18-26

Dear friends, do you know that Jesus is more powerful than that thing that makes you wet your pillow with tears every night? Do you know He has the power to arrest those issues that seek to steal the joy of your life? The two miracles of today’s gospel reading assure us that Jesus has power over our joy killers or joy snatchers.

The first miracle was the healing of the woman with hemorrhage. Her sickness robbed her of her joy for 12 years. She spent all her treasures to recover her good health, but all her efforts yielded no positive fruit. But when she took her problem to Jesus, sickness – her joy killer – was conquered, and the joy of her life was restored.

The second miracle was the raising of the daughter of a ruler, Jairus, from the dead. It was said that the girl was 12 years old, which means she was at the threshold of adulthood or womanhood. So, death came to steal the joy of a little girl who was about to enter womanhood, as well as the joy her parents would have while watching their little girl grow into womanhood, because in the tradition of the Ancient Near East, at twelve years, girls are betrothed to their future husbands. When Jairus took his problem to Jesus, death – his family’s joy killer – was conquered, and his family’s joy was restored.

Did you notice that it was the faith of both the ruler and the woman that paved way for them to receive miracles from Jesus? The faith of the woman on that very day she was healed was so strong that even her physical barriers – the crowd – couldn’t stop her from reaching her target of touching the garment of Jesus. Also, the faith of the ruler in Jesus’ ability to restore his family’s joy was so strong to the point that even when news reached him that the daughter had died, he continued believing that Jesus will not fail him.

Dear friends, Jesus is capable of arresting your joy snatchers or joy killers, but you must march towards him to report your case with unwavering faith, the faith that conquers physical barriers and refuses to back down even when it seems God is delaying or when it appears that all hope is lost.

Walk to Him today with this unwavering faith and present your case. May your new week be abundantly blessed.

Fr Isaac Chima

 14^TH SUNDAY, YEAR B: HOMILY BY FR. JUSTIN ADIELE

THEME: “TAKE NO OFFENCE AGAINST YOUR PROPHET”

INTRODUCTION:

Today, the gospel reading talked about the rejection of Jesus Christ by his own kinsmen for no just cause. This is by extension the plight of many other priests, prophets and men of God sent around the world for the purpose of speaking God’s will to the people in order to bring about spiritual, moral, and physical healing to our world. We are wrong to take offence against them and reject them or their good news purely sentimental grounds. We should accept the truth they tell us in God’s name for our own good.

 

THE FIRST READING (EZ. 2: 2 – 5)

In the first reading, God bemoaned against Israel’s impudence, stubbornness and rebellion against Him and against the prophets he sent them. It was really a negative score/remark and divine accusation against Israel. Come to think of it; if God should stand in accusation against us for rebelling against Him, against his words and against the words of his prophets, then who can acquit us?

 

THE SECOND READING (2 COR. 12: 7 – 10)

In the Second reading, St. Paul indirectly teaches us that the works of a prophet is basically wrought by the special grace of God and not by his (the prophet) own strengths. Even in his weaknesses, the power of God rests upon him and his grace is enough for him. That is why insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities cannot stop the prophet (like St. Paul) from working or doing the bidding of God. Therefore, never you be the one to stop God’s prophet from fulfilling his calling.

 

THE GOSPEL READING (MK. 6: 1 – 6)

In the gospel reading, Jesus the highest prophet entered his home town to do the work of a prophet; to heal them with the Word of God and teach them the way of salvation. With all his wisdom, gracious words and mighty miracles, they still took offence at him over flimsy sentiments; “is he not carpenter’s son”; “is he not one of us!” In order to listen to our prophets and benefit more from their teachings, graces and blessings, we must put certain sentiments aside. Sentiments about where they come from, sentiments about their colour or race, sentiments about their social status/background, sentiments about their size or height, and even sentiments about their human short comings or weaknesses.

 

CONCLUSION:

In 1960, a religious persecution broke out in Sudan. A Christian black student Paride Taban fled to Uganda where he studied and became a priest. When things settled in Sudan, young Fr. Taban returned to his homeland and was assigned to a parish in Palotaka. But his African congregation found it very difficult to believe that he was really a priest, for they had never had a black priest before. They had always had white priests who brought them clothing and medicine. Unfortunately, young Fr. Taban who was from the Madi tribe was poor like them and had nothing (materials) to share/give to them. To worsen the whole matter, Fr. Taban was to introduce them to the changes/reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The people revolted that this young black man has turn the altar around and celebrates the Mass in our own language. He cannot be a real priest. It took a very long time for the people of Palotaka to finally accept Fr. Taban.

Let no worldly sentiments make you take offence against your prophet and reject his words and teachings which are for our temporal good and eternal salvation!

Happy Sunday!

Fr. Justin